Hanger for endless conveyors



April 15, 1958 R. SIZEBARTH 2,830,694

HANGER FOR ENDLESS CONVEYORS Filed June 1, 1954 INVENTOR. F440 .5. Zeta/7% g BY 477UEN K HANGER FOR ENDLESS CONVEYORS Ralph S. Zebarth, Hickman Mills, Mo., assignor to Gordon Johnson Equipment Company, Kansas City, Mo.,

a corporation of Missouri Application June 1, 1954, Serial No. 433,494

2 Claims. (Cl. 198--177) This invention relates to improvements in conveyors and particularly to that class of article-handling structure wherein is required a plurality of supports, one for each article respectively and adapted to hold the articles in suspended relationship beneath an overhead track.

It is the primary object of the instant invention to provide a conveyor that is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to assemble and maintain in part because of the utilization of conventional components readily available on the open market.

One of the most important objects of the present invention is to provide a conveyor wherein the series of individual article supports aforementioned take theform of hangers suspended from a track and utilizing a novel means of interconnection :such as by employment of an ordinary chain wherein the links of'the latter receive stems forming a part of the hangers.

Endless conveyors and the hangers therefor, which constitute the subject matter of this invention, are commonly employed in packing plants and other localities where the components of the mechanism are subjected to the action of moisture and liquids, all of which tend to oxidize and deteriorate the units and which cause constant uninterrupted care by way of providing lubrication at points of wear.

It is, therefore, another important object of this invention to provide a hanger for endless conveyors that is equipped with rollers mounted in such fashion as to preclude the necessity of frequent, periodic lubrication. The body of the hangers and the parts related thereto, are also cast or otherwise formed of nonoxidizable material which will not be attacked by moisture or the water which is usually encountered during the employment of the conveyor system.

An important aim of this invention is to provide a conveyor employing an ordinary I-beam as a track, the aforementioned hangers being in the nature of substantially Y-shaped yokes embracing the track and riding therealong by use of rollers on the legs of the yoke.

Another aim of this invention is to provide a novel retainer mounted on the stems of the yoke members to not only hold the links of the tying chain in place on the stems, but serving as attachments for articles to be suspended from the hangers.

Other objects include many important details of construction, all of which will be made clear or become apparent as the following specification progresses, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary, perspective view of the conveyor forming the subject matter of the present invention showing a plurality of interconnected hangers mounted on the track of the conveyor.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged, elevational view of one of the hangers showing the track in section, parts being broken away for clearness.

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on irregular line III--III of Fig. 2; and a r 2,830,694 1 Patented Apr. 15, 1958 Fig. 4 is a crosssectional view taken on line IV-IV of Fig. 2.

The conveyor assembly shown in the drawing is advantageous because of the fact that it is adapted to employ a conventional I-beam 10 as a track. The beam 10 readily obtainable on the open market, has a web portion 12, together with integral flanges 14 and 16 at the edges thereof, the flange 14 being of course, readily adapted to permit simple and inexpensive mounting (not shown) on any overhead structure such as the ceiling of a building.

The flange 16 is utilized in the present invention as a track or more appropriately, a pair of tracks in uppermost, outwardly and downwardly inclined surfaces 18 and 20 of the lowermost flange 16. Byyirtue of such inherent configuration of the I-beam 10, each of a plurality of hangers 22 has been especially designed so thatrollers 24 conform to the inclination of the track surfaces 18 and 20 and bear flatly thereagainst as the hangers 22 are advanced longitudinally along the beam 10.

Each hanger 22 includes a yoke member 26 that is substantially Y-shaped, presenting a pair of legs 28 that diverge toward an integral stem 30 depending from the legs 28-48. Legs 28 straddle the flange 16 of I-beam 10 and carry the rollers 24 on the innermost faces thereof through the medium of bolts 32 and nuts 34. Bushings 36 on the bolt 32 rotatably receive the rollers 24.

As clearly illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawing, each roller 24 is mounted upon a bushing 36 whichis disposed between the inner surface of the adjacent leg 28 l and the head of bolt 32. This bushing 36 is provided with a series of longitudinal grooves 37, each of which provides a space between the smooth outer surface of that portion of bolt 32 and the bushing 36. This space is, as shown in Fig. 4, filled with lubricating material and as roller 24 is turned upon bolt 32, the grease or other lubricating substance within the grooves 37, overcome friction and prevents the ingress of liquid to the bearing surfaces. The action of this lubricating ma terial is assisted by the angle'of inclination of bolt 32 and the roller 24 supported thereon. Any water that may drop upon any part of the roller, leg and bolt assembly 24, 28 and 32 respectively, will, by gravity, be directed downwardly and outwardly to always maintain a desirable condition With respect to lubrication.

Stem 30 terminates at its lowermost end in a flat, polygonal projection 38 adapted to receive a link 40 forming a part of a tie element in the nature of an ordinary chain 42.

The projection 38 of reduced width on the stem 30, represents downwardly facing shoulders 44 that limit the extent of upward movement of the links 40 on the stems 30 and a Ushaped retainer 46 is employed to hold the links 40 in place on the stem 30 against the shoulders 44. Retainer 46, which embraces the projection 38, is releasably secured to the latter through the employment of through bolts 48 that clamp the legs of the U-shaped retainer 46 tightly against opposed fiat faces of the projection 38.

Retainer 46 has an opening 50 through its bight for pivotally receiving a triangular-shaped eyelet 52 serving to attach any desired article to the hanger 22. In this It is clear from the foregoing that the hangers 22 are all tied together and held in predetermined spaced relationship by virtue of the fact that their stems 30 project through, and are joined to a link 40 of chain 42. This manner of tying together'the hangers 22 provides for suflicient flexibility as to avoid all possibility ofbinding or locking of the hangers 22. The inherent resiliency of the chain 42 permits limited freedom of movement of the hangers 22 so that at all times rollers 24 will roll freely on the surfaces 18 and 20 and not become twisted or otherwise misplaced so as to cause undue wear of any part of the hanger or break-down in the entire conveyor system.

It is particularly important to note that the special construction of hangers 22, together with the use of chain 42, and the employment of beam 10, permits utilization of extremely sharp curves and, therefore, selection of predetermined paths of travel not heretofore made possible by conventional conveyor construction.

Still further, it is notable that the hangers 22 may be uniformly spaced or the distances therebetween may be varied to suit the desires and needs of the user since each link 40 is adapted to receive a stem 30. Noteworthy also is the fact that each individual hanger 22 supports the weight of its own article notwithstanding the interconnection that is provided by use of chain 42 for the series of hangers 22. While chain 42 is used in no way to support the articles to be conveyed, its strength is more than sufiicient to permit its use in driving the conveyor, i. e., in causing the hangers 22 to roll along the track surfaces 18 and 20. In this connection, chain 42 may pass over suitable sheaves, pulleys, rollers or sprocket wheels (not shown) for guiding purposes as well as for presenting an operable connection with a suitable prime mover for the conveyor system.

Details of construction hereinabove set forth are for the purpose of giving a full understanding of the principles of the invention and these may be varied without departing from the spirit thereof and, therefore, it is desired to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A hanger comprising a substantially Y-shaped yoke member having a pair of spaced elements and a stem depending from the elements, said stem being adapted to receive a single continuous link of a chain in surrounding relationship thereto and being provided with a pair of opposed shoulders facing downwardly away from the elements; a track-engaging roller mounted on each element respectively; a unitary, combination article support and retainer, said retainer being U-shaped, presenting a bight and a pair of legs, said legs embracing the stem and having a pair of uppermost ends engaging the link for holding the latter against the shoulders; means attaching the legs to the stem, said bight having an opening parallel to the path of travel of the hanger; and an article-receiving eyelet swingable in said opening transversely to said path of travel of the hanger.

2. An hanger as set forth in claim 1 wherein said bight is looped beneath the lowermost end of the stem.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 845,041 Opsal Feb. 19, 1907 1,723,148 Fowler Aug. 6, 1929 2,552,897 Lemmon May 15, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 485,556 Italy Oct. 14, 1953 

